LOVE, LUST, FAITH AND LIES (A Jared Leto Fairy Tale)

Winston

Orlaith and Shiv had left St Joseph's with impeccable grades and happily moved on to st Mary's Catholic college where Shiv gained As in art and textiles and Orlaith As in law and criminology. Little did Shiv know that Orlaith's daddy, a psychiatrist, who specialised in severe and enduring mental illnesses such as scitzophrenia and type 1 bipolar (terrible disorders that usually ended in lifetime hospitalization, serious crimes or death) and mammy, from the moment their special daughter had met little, broken Siobahn and welcomed her into the family had been saving a trust fund for her. Knowing her family's situation and poverty, Robert and Susan, had decided to put a grand away every year for Shiv. When university called she would have £7,000 and would not have to worry about a thing throughout the years of study. When university did eventually lay waiting for each girl and Bob and Sue had decided to present Shiv with the 7,000 gift, Siobahn thought she'd never stop weeping grateful tears and hugging Mr and Mrs Cairnes for their kindness and their love throughout the years. She wouldn't have achieved what she had without them. Not to do down Mrs Macarthy, her mother, her gem who even though bogged down and broken, overworked and underpaid, had been a beautiful and wonderful mother to Shiv. Encouraging her every step of the way. Even when she'd come in from a gruelling shift at the laundry press of the local textile factory, numb handed and exhausted, she'd cook her daughter a meal and sit at the table talking about their day or helping her with homework. She tried, she really did, to be the mother AND father, in the home. And Shiv wouldn't have been half the woman she had become without her strength and guidance. Mary McCarthy had been a mother like no other and the night before Shiv was to set off to her new and prospectful life at the Royal college of Art and design, Mary had sat her only daughter down at the old table and opened an old tin and presented her with a thousand pounds telling her, that from her first year at st Joseph's she'd known that her Siobahn was destined for great things and would never end up like her, had been putting away whatever she could in the old biscuit tin ever since. After Connor, by then a mechanic in the local garage had slapped £500 on the table too, pushing it toward her with a "do us proud now gerl, ye promise?" They'd sat holding hands around that rickety old table a long, long time and wept. Each thinking of the nightmare of the past and the hope of the future.

Shiv had gained her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Art and Design and Orlaith was half way through her criminal law and post graduate in criminology at birkbeck. Shiv had decided to take an 18 month hiatus before she returned to gain her post graduate in pottery and textiles. Saying her goodbyes to her best friend in the whole, wide world. Who'd she had never been separated from for even a day in the last 10 years Shiv felt jittery and alone as she boarded the plane to her adventure.

Shiv had started in Europe. Every country she visited, she revelled in the art and cultures of each place. Breathing in and soaking up each places individual, original ways and concepts of art. Be it the old masters such as Michelangelo and Divinci or the relevantly modern art of Van Gogh and Magritte. Moving on to Egypt, Thailand, Japan and China. The hieroglyphics of Egypt, to the wonderful silk works of Thailand. The intensely sexual and erotic wooden art of Japan to the awe inspiring pottery of China. Lastly came, Australia, New Zealand and the Americas. The bright and colourful tribal art from Australia and new Zealand, the amazing photography of north America and the intense political and post war art of South America. Shiv had done a little work a long the way. Leaving half her money with Orlaith for her future studies, her cash seriously decreased within those 18 months, so she did sketches and portraits of people and areas that she would sell in the street for a little cash wherever she was. Shiv's last stop was Italy " the home of art " and she marvelled at the detailed religious art throughout the ages. Shiv returned to London in the January of 2005. In which time Orlaith had graduated with such high results that her tutor, with her contacts (she would not have done this for any other student but Orlaith with her great potential and value she would bring to the company) got her in to one of the biggest deal partnerships in London at that time,HOT property, Larson, McCann and Spicer. Shiv was absolutely over the moon for her best friend when she moved back in with Orlaith and her then boyfriend, Barry, who Shiv intensely disliked. Her gut instinct had ended up being right. Although he was a qualified Dr and had one hell of a wage he seemed to make Orlaith pay for everything. Turned out that the bastard was keeping his money for taking other girls out and wining and dining them. Or paying blondes in leather boots (glorified prostitutes) to whip him and lead him round on dog leads. The final straw came when he made a pass at Shiv. She'd not even thought about it and splattered his nose across his face with her forehead. Orlaith threw his belongings out of the window of the apartment shouting "Sue her. You won't win!" Much ice cream, weeping, wine and soppy films (Dracula being one of them) later, Orlaith had laughed hysterically shouting "his nose...it'll take more than one of his nursey gerls to fix that!" Shiv, laughing with her shouting "well gerl, like ye say. Sue me, ye won't win!" And they'd fallen into each other's arms, giggling like teenagers.